Shodoshima

Outside the front door of the hotel I stayed at in Takamatsu was a small hole-in-the wall restaurant that served traditional Japanese Breakfast.  It was run by a woman and she charged 530 Yen (about 5 dollars) for this massive tray of food!

I chose to stay in Takamatsu because it offered a regular ferry to the island of Shodoshima, which is in the Inland Sea between Shikoku and Honshu.

Why did I want to go to Shodoshima?  Well, this is a testament to the saying that little things parents do or show their kids when their kids are young, stick with them.  In this case, when I was young, my Dad had us watch a Japanese movie called 24 Eyes.  I remember being moved by the movie and so I wanted to come to Shodoshima to see where the movie was based and to see the museum that honors the movie.

This is the iconic photo that everyone knows from 24 Eyes.  The primary school teacher, on crutches, and her 12 pupils (24 Eyes).

There are two sites that are related to the movie "24 Eyes."  The first is the movie set of the 1980's remake of the movie.  The famous movie was the original, filmed in 1954.

On the set, the 1954 edition of the movie plays at all times.  Since the day was rainy and cold, I took an hour to watch part of the movie.  The movie was in Japanese without subtitles, but I remembered some scenes.  This is the teacher, the main character.

This touching scene is where a couple of the students go and visit their teacher.

This is a building that was used in the 1980's remake.

Just a few hundred meters down the road from the movie set is the location of the primary school that was used in the original film.  The school was actually in use for students until the 1970's.

This is the first and second year student classroom, which is where a significant portion of the movie takes place.

The original desks and chairs.

So it turns out that Shodoshima has a climate that can grow olives.  Therefore the island is famous for olive products throughout Japan.

To finish my afternoon on Shodoshima, I spent an hour at an onsen.  This was the view from the onsen.

Back in Takamatsu, I made my way to another udon noodle shop.

While I was eating, I got talking to a guy named Ken.  Turns out he spoke excellent English because he lived in the United States for work for a decade.